Board index Other Hangar talk

Old good FSX

Talk about (almost) anything, as long as it is no serious FlightGear talk and does not fit in the other subforums.
Forum rules
Please refrain from discussing politics.

Old good FSX

Postby V12 » Mon Dec 03, 2018 2:20 pm

I made upgrade on customer's PC and on HDD found FSX. And that was not end - on my surprise, there was addon PMDG 737 800/900 NG/NGC ! I tested 737-800 NG and was surprised again, almost all buttons, switches etc is functional. Route planning in MCDU is fully functional. I performed some flights, for example LZIBB to LOWI with full SID STAR procedures. Flights was boring - LNAV with VNAV worked absolutly perfect. Flight dynamics is almost identical with fix base sim in Simulatorcentrum Bratislava.
This old piece of software is amazing.

Stay tuned, I will add some screenshots and other infos.
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
V12
 
Posts: 2757
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:27 pm
Location: LZIB
Callsign: BAWV12

Re: Old good FSX

Postby V12 » Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:03 pm

Some screenshots - default FSX clouds :

Image

Destination - LOWI - check terrain visualisation on ND (there was not framerate drop) :

Image

Touchdown at LOWI :

Image

I was a bit dissapointed - FSX has not real weather, or today, that feature doesn't work. Original 737-800 is very nice modelled with reasonable flight dynamics, but with basic and very unrealistic autoflight system. 747 too. There is one big problem - that app is only 32bit and can't use more than 4GB RAM on 64bit systems and can't grow. Outstanding overall performance for 12 years old software. I will think very hard when I see this sim on the Steam with "action" price 9.99 EUR plus 60 EUR for PMDG737 is very attractive offer. Today evening I must return PC to the owner, my test is over :(
Last edited by V12 on Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
V12
 
Posts: 2757
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:27 pm
Location: LZIB
Callsign: BAWV12

Re: Old good FSX

Postby legoboyvdlp » Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:04 pm

Nice shots - the PMDG is very good. But I think FlightGear's sky / clouds looks better :)
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Old good FSX

Postby V12 » Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:15 pm

Yes, You are right, new 2018.3.1 clouds looks fantastic. I searched Internet how to solve realistic weather and there is solution - standalone software ActiveSky. On screenshots clouds looks better than in FG and there is possibility to use wind aloft and interpolate weather sectors for smooth pressure and wind changes. But AS is payware :(
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
V12
 
Posts: 2757
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:27 pm
Location: LZIB
Callsign: BAWV12

Re: Old good FSX

Postby icecode » Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:24 pm

Even if we could pay for such software, it's never as easy as plug&play, i.e. the problem is the interfacing and coupling with FG (backwards compatibility, dealing with old code bases etc.), not the cloud rendering itself.

But those screenshots are amazing, specially for a 12 year old software as you said.
icecode
 
Posts: 709
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:17 pm
Location: Spain
Version: next
OS: Fedora

Re: Old good FSX

Postby StuartC » Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:14 pm

FSX is just pants, terrible.
I did a comparison on my home area on FG, FSX and XP 11 on visuals and weather. You can read it here:-

http://www.fguk.eu/index.php/2013-09-03 ... erent-sims
StuartC
 
Posts: 3175
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 9:18 pm
Location: Arse end of the Universe
Callsign: WF01
Version: 2019.1
OS: W10 64 bit

Re: Old good FSX

Postby V12 » Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:55 pm

I got that machine borrowed till Friday :lol:

Night cockpit 737, again, beautifull for museal software

Image

And some picture for Pavlin - the mighty Triple Seven :

Image

I found free real weather generator FSXWX, clouds are better than default FSX :

Image

This piece of software is perfect, interpolate wind direction, speed, use wind aloft, calculate clouds placement and types, etc. Again - amazing for free software.
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
V12
 
Posts: 2757
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:27 pm
Location: LZIB
Callsign: BAWV12

Re: Old good FSX

Postby V12 » Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:48 am

Another unbelievable surprise on early morning depart from Heathrow Gate 420 :

Image

That silhouette in the dark is very good familiar for me !
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
V12
 
Posts: 2757
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:27 pm
Location: LZIB
Callsign: BAWV12

Re: Old good FSX

Postby Thorsten » Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:33 am

Apart from the 3d work and the raytracing for lightmaps (which few planes in FG have at this detail level) which are really nice:

I've tried FSX once and I've seen it a few dozen times beefed up with plenty of addons on FSWeekend - generally it has not impressed me at all - the flight dynamics even a bit outside the nominal envelope was completely implausible, and sky / clouds were not very realistic but often done to look 'flashy' , requiring e.g. visibilities that nature really does not produce often.
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: Old good FSX

Postby legoboyvdlp » Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:36 am

X-plane is by far superior to FSX out of the box, and yet, even it's clouds are simply not as good as FlightGears... We mightn't have the fancy features but we at least have one of the best weather systems by default :)
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Old good FSX

Postby V12 » Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:58 am

Best weather system ? Hmmm, I'm not sure. Why the clouds are strange rotated after long flight from W to E or E to W ? Something is wrong in that best weather system. And discontinuity in the pressure, wind speed and direction. And ugly rectangular cloud patterns...
Sorry for that wodrs, but for me, weather system in FG is not very good for long flights. For short lurking around airport is probably OK. But there is 1 very big advantage - it is OpenSource, not payware.

Image

On my test flight from EGLL to LZIB I did not observed any steep change of the wind direction, speed or baro pressure at cruise level FL330. No autopilot OFF due overspeed or altitude inconsistency, or any other ugly glitches. That flight was performed with freeware addon FSXWX, because live weather in FSX doesn't work.
Last edited by V12 on Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
V12
 
Posts: 2757
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:27 pm
Location: LZIB
Callsign: BAWV12

Re: Old good FSX

Postby Thorsten » Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:07 am

Something is wrong in that best weather system


No, actually not - it's a problem in the renderer having to do with the 'up' direction definition that's passed to the shader. The weather system doesn't actually know anything of that, it just asks the cloud rendering code for some action.

I know, all those distinctions...

And discontinuity in the pressure, wind speed and direction.


...which I've never been able to observe despite looking for them, and which reading the code shouldn't be there in the first place...

Sorry for that wodrs, but for me, weather system in FG is not very good for long flights.


The good thing is - you can just use FSX if you like it better :D And we can just use what we like better.
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: Old good FSX

Postby V12 » Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:14 am

Thorsten wrote in Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:07 am:...which I've never been able to observe despite looking for them


If You can't observe problem, it doesn't mean that problem doesn't exists. I documented this problem with recorded data - check my old posts :

viewtopic.php?p=329445#p329445
viewtopic.php?p=329516#p329516

And about clouds : I don't know where is problem - renderer, cloud placement procedure. Result is WRONG, as You can see. And this bug is still in 2018.3.1RC.
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
V12
 
Posts: 2757
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:27 pm
Location: LZIB
Callsign: BAWV12

Re: Old good FSX

Postby Thorsten » Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:26 am

I don't know where is problem - renderer, cloud placement procedure.


Well, if you don't know where it is, why do you claim it is in the weather system? Obviously it matters whether e.g. your AP or the weather system has an issue, no? We wouldn't want to change the weather because your AP is overly sensitive for instance (just as an example).

But, well - now you know, because I told you, no?

If You can't observe problem, it doesn't mean that problem doesn't exists


No, it just means if I go looking and can't observe it, it's likely a problem peculiar to something you are doing and I am not doing or some config you're running but I am not (or a problem related to your hardware which mine doesn't have, though typically that's mostly true for rendering, precious little else I've seen being HW dependent) - it just means that it's not a general problem.

I also believe code is fairly deterministic - if there's instructions in there to interpolate, there'll either be a crash and nothing works, or the instructions will be carried out. But that a non-conditional code-block is simply skipped - that I've never seen.

***

In a general vein - if you go looking for specific bugs in flightsims or search for where the scenery is not developed, I'm fairly sure you'll find plenty in each of them. FSX can look quite hideous as well if you try the right location, it can have ridiculous clouds if you look for the right lighting,... so there's that. I believe trying to create a message based on comparing bugs of one flightsim against well-developed scenery of another is nonsense.

But again - if FSX makes you so much happier - then simply invest some money and use it!
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: Old good FSX

Postby legoboyvdlp » Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:30 am

To be fair, I have seen problems myself that nobody else can see such as FG not being parsed properly. And when I look at the code I see possibly why - but on everyone else's setup it seems to work properly. This could be something similarly wierd.
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Next

Return to Hangar talk

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests